The St. Louis Battlehawks held a press conference remotely Wednesday via Zoom with coach Anthony Becht. Becht made some initial remarks about training camp before accepting questions.
“Training camp has been going really well,” Becht said. “Our guys are working hard. The tempo, the culture is starting to build.”
Becht mentioned snagging a snafu with incredibly cold weather conditions limiting their training camp activities over the past week. He is hoping for a return to the field on Friday.
Roster management and player cuts
Becht’s first question was related to roster management and the looming player cuts.
“We do need to make cuts,” Becht said. “We have 70 right now. All the teams do. We’ll have to bring that down to 50.”
Teams will have from the conclusion of training camp until just before Opening Day to make those roster cuts.
Another question inquired on where the cut players go after the cuts are made, and whether there was a similar situation where there is a Team 9 in place.
“The players will be waived,” Becht said. “Clearly, when we need players to come back due to injuries, we’ll look to those guys first. They are open through waivers to whichever teams pluck them. If they don’t get plucked, their option is to go back home, train, stay in shape, ready to go if things happen. Things will happen for every team, for every position.”
“They’ll go home. We’ll get them back to their places,” Becht adds. “Again, they’re just on call for us or for the league.”
Battlehawks media coordinator Brian Stull added some commentary to that.
“We do have a partnership with the IFL (Indoor Football League),” Stull said. “There is not a Team 9 this year for the XFL. They will be free agents, but, obviously, they have the chance to make an impression while they’re here.”
This means that cut players are in a player pool for the taking, which potentially includes players going to the USFL or even the revived United Football League.
Performance of local talent
Becht was questioned about the performance of two local talents, Brian Hill and Allie Green.
“Brian is doing an excellent job,” Becht said. “He’s a consummate pro. He’s a guy that does everything full speed. He’s an outstanding special teams player as well, so he brings a lot of variety and diversity to his game.”
Green, however, has been dealing with a slight injury.
“Allie has been dealing with a bit of a shoulder issue,” Becht said. “He just more recently got on the field to do a few things for us.”
The full audio archive of the press conference is available below, courtesy of our media partner at Heartland Newsfeed/Heartland Newsfeed Radio Network:
Listen to “PRESS CONFERENCE: St. Louis Battlehawks @ Training Camp (February 1, 2023)” on Spreaker.
